I’m not a giant gamer, but I know people who love their PlayStation 3’s and play regularly against people over the Sony PlayStation Network. Last week the PlayStation network unexpectedly went down, and is still down. Rumours started flowing that Sony had pulled the plug due to security issues, and that the data of all of its members has been compromised.
Yesterday an official statement was issued to PlayStation Network users by Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media for Sony that said :
"We have discovered that between April 17 and April 19, 2011, certain PlayStation Network and Qriocity service user account information was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into our network."
That’s why the story of the hack to the PlayStation Network and Qriocity is so scary. And it gets worse …
"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."
Um yeah. So, a company that has files of reportedly 77 million gamers has been hacked into, and the gamer information potentially stolen. This includes grownups and adolescents.
I know some of you will say I’m overreacting, and “what are the chances of my account being one out of the 75 million stolen, that actually gets comprimised.” I can tell you this – there’s nothing like seeing a hotel charge from Europe show up on your bill and having to prove to the bank that you were still sitting in Chilliwack at the time the charge occurred (sense the sarcasm here?) If you haven’t already been a target of identity theft it sucks – it’s time consuming and difficult to repair.
So here’s what you can do if you are a concerned PSN member – and really, you can follow these tips if you’re concerned about your data being stolen at any point:
1) If you’re Canadian, and not travelling outside of Canada, call your bank and tell them you want to put a hold on your credit card for all transactions outside of Canada. You can always call them before you travel to have this re-instated;
2) Watch your credit card statements like a hawk;
3) Start checking your credit reports. Equifax Canada and Trans Union are the widely used companies in Canada. They both offer online and mail credit reports;
4) Remember that Sony will NEVER contact you asking for your credit card, Social Insurance numbers etc. if someone contacts you by email for this info do NOT give it to them.
This will be an interesting to see how this story plays out (har har). Given the volume of data, and the size of the breach there are rumblings online that this could be in the top 5 web security breaches of all time. This time it was Sony, but next time it could be any of your favourite online stores.
This incident will continue to make news (as it should) and hopefully encourage more stringent security rules for those that are guardians all of our personal data. In the mean time, as Sony says in their own statement: “To protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss, we encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports.”
Online gaming just got a whole heck of a lot more grown up didn’t it
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